Louis Elbel

The Victors

Sheet music cover University of Michigan fight song
Also known as	Hail to the Victors
Lyrics	, 1898
Music	Louis Elbel

"The Victors", and also called "Hail to the Victors", is the fight song of the University of Michigan (UM) composed by UM student Louis Elbel in 1898. The song was first played publicly by John Philip Sousa and his band.

An abbreviated version of the fight song, based on the final refrain, is played after the football team either scores or makes a decisive defense play, such as an interception. Its full lyrics span several verses that run of more than two minute duration. The melody of the fight song is very similar to the trio section from "The Spirit of Liberty March", published seven months earlier by Tin Pan Alley composer George "Rosey" Rosenberg.

The phrase "champions of the West" is often misunderstood; it is a reference to Michigan's membership in the Western Conference, later renamed the Big Ten. After Michigan temporarily withdrew from the Western Conference in 1907, a new Michigan fight song "Varsity" was written in 1911 because the line "champions of the West" was no longer relevant.

The Victors is considered one of the top fight songs ever written and considered the first significant fight song to be written. The fight song is written as a military march format.

Previously, the song "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" was perceived as the school's fight song. "The Victors" was composed by UM student Louis Elbel in 1898 following the last-minute victory over the University of Chicago that clinched a Western Conference championship on Thanksgiving in Chicago. Singing "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" after the game, Elbel felt the event should be "dignified by something more elevating for this was no ordinary victory." Elbel wrote the full song out on the train ride back to Ann Arbor. Elbel copyrighted the tune in early 1899. Elbel and a student orchestra played the first public performance on April 5, 1899 during A Night Off on-campus undergraduate musical with the audience requesting an encore. Elbel had the words arranged and approached John Philip Sousa. Officially, the University held that the song was first performed in public on April 8, 1899 by Sousa and his band. Sousa is said to have called The Victors, "the greatest college fight song ever written".